The Substitutes
by sylver rain
Summary: A rip off Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’ Chpt 5: Neji fans rejoice! (Damn, this fic is doing rather pethetically, ain't it?)
1. Something Weird

A/N: Right… I haven't been writing fanfics for… I dunno, a year? And I can't be bothered finishing my X-men Evo one, cuz it takes too much effort.. (damn, I'm getting lazy…) I feel kinda bad reading the reviews I got from some sweet-mouth reviewers, and I think I'll continue writing when I feel xmen-inspiration revisiting. :P Well, considering that I haven't written for quite a while, plz excuse any bad writing skills, grammar, etc., if my writing does not achieve your standards. Although not my first fanfic, this _is_ my first Naruto fanfic, so if I seem rather stiff at any point, do forgive me.

So maybe this storyline does seem a little weird. But Roald Dahl has always been a favorite of mine, and I had actually been saving this storyline up for Xmen evo (it would be cool to see mice running around with mutant powers.. XD) But Naruto came along and addictions do change… I'm gonna try to get as many of the characters in as I possibly can, so if this chapter seems to have a lack of your favorite Naruto individual, just wait a while and maybe he/she may pop up somewhere along the story.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me (duh) and neither does 'The Witches' (double duh)

* * *

**Chapter 1: Something Weird**

Naruto could feel his eyes gradually getting heavier and he was starting to lose whatever little focus he had even had. He squinted hard at the blackboard before giving up and knocking out, with his head face-down on his desk. He was dancing around in a sunny and cheerful garden of sweet-smelling roses when a sharp pang at the back of his head snapped him out of his dream and into a series of muffled chokes. He looked up to the front see Iruka glaring at him and the entire class chuckling away. When Iruka resumed the lesson, Naruto turned back to see who had thrown that damn eraser at him, and saw Sasuke rolling his eyes and shaking his head. Naruto glared at him, though he was particularly thankful that it was Sasuke's eraser and not Iruka's hard metal ruler that had hit him.

The class bell rang and the students were getting ready to go when Iruka yelled out, "By the way, class, in order to fortify the camaraderie between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Sand and Sound, our school teachers are exchanging with the other villages' Ninja Academy's teachers, so if you see some other people walking around next week instead of us, please don't go hysterical and start throwing daggers at them." The last line was accompanied by a concerned smile toward Naruto, which got the class laughing again while they made their way out the classroom.

---

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, you know about that teacher-exchange thing?" Naruto stopped practicing with his shuriken and looked at his teacher.

"Yea?" Kakashi responded.

"Is it a must for the exchange to happen? I mean, just cuz we're trying to get on friendly terms with the Sand and Sound doesn't mean it's important for a teacher-exchange, is it?"

"Well, it was agreed between the nations that for an alliance to be established, trust in each other must initially be gained. So what better way than through the education system? That way, we still protect any vulnerability by not letting them into our team trainings or near the Hokage, but through a more counteractive method, which is our ninja academy, where in most villages, the education system is pretty much identical, and where there are many students to offensively retaliate if necessary."

Naruto blinked. "So… it's _not_ a must for the exchange to happen?"

Kakashi rolled his one exposed eye, "No. It _is_ a must, Naruto."

Naruto immediately started sulking.

Kakashi shook his head and… smiled? Naruto couldn't tell. His trainer's face was just too covered up. Naruto had always found Kakashi to be a very mysterious, cool, yet… strange man. He was calm and composed, and almost sleepy-looking for most of the time, with odd habits that were quite unexpected of someone like him. But when he was serious, damn he was scary. Naruto never forgot the battle between Zabuza and Kakashi on Team 7's first mission, and he had been a little amazed and frightened by his trainer. But all the different qualities jumbled up together were what made Naruto think he had the coolest teacher in Konoha, or possibly in all the villages. And that was why he didn't want Kakashi to leave.

"Sensei, can you pleeeeeeaaaase ask the Hokage to stay here in Konoha? Say that it's extremely important that you supervise my training! He can't say no to that, can he?"

"Naruto, this exchange is really important, and I'm sure you can survive the term without your fantastic trainer. Just keep practicing what I've told you to work on and I want you to have mastered it by the time I get back, okay?"

Naruto just sulked more but nodded.

---

Naruto was panting heavily as he ran toward his classroom. He had been moody the entire weekend for having to miss out on an entire term's training, and had to relieve himself of his depression by indulging in ramen. But this temporary depression was also the cause of him getting up late that morning. The more depressed he was, the more sleep he needed. At least that was the excuse he convinced himself of. As he carelessly turned a corner, he bumped into someone else. He looked up to see a man, with dark hair tied back, and most noticeably, six arms. Naruto snapped out from his shock and mumbled his apologies before dashing off toward his classroom. The man was probably one of the new substitutes, for Naruto had never seen him before.

When reached outside his classroom door, he stopped to catch his breath. He slid open the door, and instead of seeing Iruka-sensei with the usual shake of his head, standing there was another freak, for a substitute teacher. Naruto couldn't help but go wide-eyed and let out an "Ack!" It looked like something out from a little boy's nightmares. Looking down at him was a hunched man, with queer, dark-ringed eyes, light blue hair and a thin line of dark blue for a mouth. Naruto swallowed hard and smiled, "Hehez… ah, sorry I'm late." It wasn't exactly a good idea to be late on the first day of school, and the first impression was always the most important. Looks like Naruto screwed it up once again. He was about to dash to his seat when the sub turned around and looked at him again.

Naruto did a double take. It was not normal to look at someone, then turn your back at them and look at them again. No, definitely not normal.

But yes, the teacher was looking at him again. This time Naruto went wide-eyed and nearly fainted. The teacher had someone else on his back, who looked exactly the same as the other one, with shoulder length light blue hair, and the same dark eyes and blue lips. It looked like they were born as twins that just came out wrong, with the brother stuck to the back of the other in an odd way. The man on the back glared at him as Naruto scrambled to his seat. Naruto knew this was not good. The teacher hadn't even scolded him, more even said a word, and Naruto was already shaking inside. Just what kind of freaks did the other villages have? Naruto looked to the front at Sakura, who was quite visibly quivering, and he glanced back at Sasuke, who was merely gazing intently at the teacher.

The purple hair sub turned around to face the black board, causing the other sub to swing and face the students. The entire class could barely suppress their gasp. Kiba's puppy was whining softly in fear. The purple hair sub picked up a piece of chalk and started writing on the board. The loud, intolerable screech of chalk against the rough board echoed throughout the classroom, and the class groaned in deafening agony. The sub dropped the chalk and turned around, allowing the other sub to write on the board, with the same noisy screech. The sub also dropped the chalk and the purple hair teacher suddenly spoke, "You shall address me as Sakon-sensei, and…" he turned sideways, allowing the other sub to say, "I am Ukon-sensei." Sakon turned back to face them. "In this lesson, we'll be going through what we expect of this class and the rest of the school."

'No way' Naruto thought, 'the whole lesson? How much do they expect from us?'

Apparently, the new subs' list of expectation was long enough to take up the entire lesson. It had every 'no' you could think of, from no going to the toilet during class time because it was unnecessary, no talking because it was rude, and no eating because it would be distracting, all the way to no ninja techniques allowed because it was a classroom and not a battlefield, no asking too many questions because it was annoying, and no gawking at crushes because it was stupid - to which almost all the girls in the class sighed sadly and looked at Sasuke.

"What next, no breathing?" Naruto mumbled.

"And no breathing… too much." Sakon added, causing the entire class to gawk, "Because there's not enough air in this infinitesimal room for the entire lot of you unworthy rats."

---

"So we haven't done or said anything yet and they already hate us." Naruto complained. "It's only the first two hours of school and I'm already hating it." Naruto, who was on his way to the cafeteria, saw another teacher walk by - a female, whom he had been told was called Takuya, though she was at least one of the better looking ones of all the subs. There was a stray bit of reddish fringe that hung over the middle of her forehead, which Naruto found extremely irritating. But at least she looked normal. "Hey, I noticed that all the teachers are from the Hidden Sound. Where are the ones from Sand?"

Sakura and Sasuke were walking with him, but it was Sakura that answered, "Kakashi-sensei told me that the exchange was rotated, where the teachers from the Hidden Sound comes to the Hidden Leaf village, the teachers from Leaf go to Sand, and the teachers from Sand go to Sound. The Hidden Mist will be joining in the rotation soon though."

Naruto nodded in comprehension, and not noticing where he was going, crashed straight into a box someone was pushing on a trolley, spilling out its contents.

"Ah! Sorry!!" Naruto apologized in embarrassment, and looked up to the person. It was a gigantic and incredibly fat man, bald with some pink hair at the sides and middle of his head, much like an apache hairstyle. He looked passively down at Naruto, who was starting to feel really small. Naruto bent down and with the help of Sakura and Sasuke, started picking up the objects. He stared at them. They were… mousetraps?

When the trio dumped the last of the mousetraps into the box which was stacked atop many other piles, the sub started off without a word.

"Err, hey!" Naruto called out.

The sub turned back so that his head was sideways.

"Sir, ah, sensei, may I ask what all the mousetraps are for?"

The sub's expression didn't change, but he replied, "I heard there's gonna be a mice-infestation coming to Konoha, and I wanted to be prepared." And he was off.

Sakura was white-faced, "M-mice?" she stammered.

Naruto was scratching his head, before exclaiming aloud, "Ah, why are all the subs so damn weird? In fact, this whole thing is weird." And he kept on walking.

Sasuke, who was staring after the fat teacher who had just turned around a corner, felt that Naruto may have just hit the spot right there.

Something weird was definitely going on.

---

A/N: Is anyone too OOC? I'm trying to maintain as much as Sasuke's cold and quiet self as possible without it seeming like he's not even there. :S And I think Kakashi had talked too much at one point… BAH!! Keeping in character is so hard…

The Sound teachers in the fic are actually from the Sound Five, Orochimaru's gatekeepers. I watch the anime and so I'm only updated that way. So I have no idea just how exactly the Sound Five look like and I'm clueless of their individual characteristics. (Thank God for the internet)

I'm going to be the dignified person I am and NOT push you for reviews. I'm too cool to request any.

{Falls on knees and wails} Oh, PLEASE!! Review, I beg of you!! Tell me what you think!! Your valuable opinion is crucial!!

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	2. Eavesdropping A Reliable Source for Inf...

A/N: Damn… something happened to the fic… when I created the story, it didn't come out in the Naruto-fic category. In fact, I couldn't find it at all… :'( But after editing it and reposting, it came out somewhere on page 8 or 9. Grrr… but anyway, anyone know how to make the asterisks come out? When I typed in the asterisks-star-thing, it didn't appear on the page when I previewed previous chapter…

I'll just reinforce something:

"Dialogue"

'Thought'

_Stressing on the word_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Eavesdropping - A Reliable Source for Information**

It was the next day and Naruto was walking around behind the school, a place where almost no one hung around. He had been looking for his two teammates but Sasuke was no where to be found and Sakura was too busy looking for Sasuke to bother with Naruto. So he grudgingly had to have lunch by himself. The worse part was that he _had _no lunch to have by himself in the first place. He was starving and was actually hoping to pinch some food off his two friends. But now he had to go hungry. He sighed and sat down under a tree, engaging himself in the deserted scenery and hoping that perhaps concentrating on the environment may take some of the hunger away.

Concentrating on the environment caused Naruto to feel a slight tingle of charka present nearby, and he looked around warily.

"Hey."

"Ack!!" Naruto jumped up in shock. He looked up at the direction the voice came from, and saw Sasuke sitting at the corner of a branch of the tree with a foot dangling down.

Sasuke hushed him, "Can't you be a little less noisy?"

With a single leap, Naruto was up on the branch next to Sasuke and said in the same loud voice, "Hey, what the hell are you doing up here?"

"I'm enjoying some personal quiet time alone. Or at least I _was_."

Naruto raised a brow, "Reeaally… or otherwise, escaping your ever nauseating crowd of fangirls that never cease to be on your tail?"

That was precisely the reason Sasuke was seeking refuge in the lone tree, but the dark-haired boy didn't change his expression. The spot Sasuke had chosen to hide was quite effective, being at the back of the school where hardly anyone goes, and the tree was very thick with its springtime leaves. He was very well hidden and hence Naruto had failed to see him there at first.

Naruto felt hiss stomach rumble and looked up at Sasuke, grinning, "Hey, I'm really glad I found you, pal, cuz…"

Sasuke threw his lunch at Naruto, who gleefully accepted it, "Aren't you hungry?"

_'_If you read the same notes from girls that I had read just now, you wouldn't be hungry either._'_ "No." Sasuke simply replied.

Naruto shrugged and dug in.

Sasuke suddenly stiffened and Naruto stopped eating. Sasuke had started crawling around the thick trunk of the tree, and toward the source from which some soft voices were coming from. He was perfectly silent and furtive, and Naruto competitively felt compelled to be able to move with as much stealth as the other boy. He followed suit, stepping in the same places as Sasuke, and soon both of them were atop a branch right above two people who had just arrived.

Naruto wasn't sure about how Sasuke kept so silent, but he was holding his breath. Breathing may give them away, and Naruto wasn't about to get both of them in trouble of any sort - that is, if they would get in trouble for eavesdropping. Sasuke had seemed a little on the edge lately, as if something was going to happen, and most of the time, the number one rookie was right.

Naruto looked down and realized the couple was two of the four new substitutes.

"Kidoumaru, have you done what you had to?" The female sub said.

"Yes, Tayuya." The sub with six arms whom Naruto had bumped into at the start of yesterday replied. "I've invited that fat slob to come to the hall later after school. Just to try the stuff out. He was over the moon. Didn't hesitate to say yes and didn't suspect a thing."

"Good." Tayuya smiled, a very wicked sort of smile that sent shivers down Naruto's back. "I just love surprises."

The two subs walked off in different directions, and Sasuke and Naruto stayed quiet for a while until they felt it was finally safe to talk.

"W-what was that all about?" Naruto stammered. He had no idea why he was so freaked out. The contents of the conversation he had overheard wasn't even bloodcurdling enough to send Hinata into shock, but somehow, the way the female substitute, Tayuya, had spoken, was just plain scary.

Sasuke, if sharing the same fear as him, showed no sign of it, but seemed to be deep in thought. "Test what out? On what fat slob?"

Naruto suggested, "Maybe the fat sub? The one who was pushing a trolley and whom I crashed into? Hmm… how come I keep crashing into so many people anyway…"

Sasuke ignored Naruto's afterthought and said, "The sub? I was thinking of him. Are these two teachers planning something against him?"

"I know!" Naruto exclaimed in an excited tone, "I know! I know! I bet these two teachers are gonna test something out on the fat sub and… OH!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I have got it!" Naruto was standing up on the branch now with a finger pointing high into the air, "Those two subs are mice leaders, and they found out that the fat sub was determined to wipe them and their micey-minions out with the mice-traps we saw! So they're gonna get him first before he gets them!!" Naruto panted heavily, proud of his fantastic elucidation. (And by 'fantastic', I mean 'fantasy-like', not 'marvelous' or 'great'.)

Sasuke just sat there and stared up at him. "Right… let's just go to the school hall at the end of school and see just what's the lovely surprise."

---

The bell rang, signaling the end of school, and the students of the Hidden Leaf Academy were on their way home, rushing out the school doors. Sasuke and Naruto purposely took their times packing their school bags. Their teacher, Sakon/Ukon, had left the room without the slightest thought about them. Sasuke slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out the classroom and quickly down the corridor towards the hall, and Naruto rushed to catch up.

The hall was after the next corner and Sasuke was about to turn in when he stopped in his tracks, causing Naruto to bump into him, "Dammit… why do I keep crashing into people??" Naruto softly winced.

The female sub, Tayuya, was walking to the hall entrance from the opposite side of the passageway, and to avoid getting seen, Sasuke had stopped behind the corner. However, Naruto's soft voice hadn't gone unheard by her, and she was suspiciously making her way toward them now.

Sasuke mentally cursed, and looked around for somewhere to hide. Nothing was in sight. Naruto tugged at his sleeve and grinned, pointing upward. Sasuke looked up to see the wire mesh of a vent, its bottom screws missing.

-

Tayuya looked over the corner, but there was nobody there. She glanced around before shrugging and walking back into the hall, passing the noise she heard off as her own imagination.

-

"Just how do you know about the mapping of the ventilation system?" Sasuke asked as he crawled behind Naruto, although he thought he already had an idea of just how Naruto had become an expert.

"Just say that you've just been let in on my secret as to how I have an endless supply of teachers' candies." Naruto sniggered softly.

Sasuke shook his head. So it was Naruto's fault the entire school had to stay behind during lunch one day because the teachers couldn't find the candies they used to reward the younger students.

"Hey, we gotta talk real soft, cuz being a ventilation system, our voices will easily travel throughout the airways and everyone will hear us." Naruto said.

"I know that." Sasuke replied a-matter-of-factly.

"Sheesh, can't you at least let me pretend I'm smarter than you?" Naruto grumbled.

The two boys crept silently toward another ventilation passage which was a lot larger, with room to spare for both of them to crawl side by side. This large passage branched out into another few airways that were as small as the one they were previously in, but only one was as large as the one they were currently in.

Sasuke pointed at the large airway and whispered, "I'm guessing that's the passage to the hall?"

Naruto looked at him incredulously, "How the hell did you know?"

Sasuke hated talking and really wasn't in the mood to explain, but he did it anyway, "It's obvious. The hall is meant to contain the entire school for assembly, so with so many people in it, it's gonna need a large ventilation system to provide enough fresh air for everyone."

Naruto mumbled "Yea, I knew that too." although he had actually found out purely by exploration and discovery.

They quickly came to the end of the airway and to another mesh, at which on the other side was the hall. The hall consisted of a large space with rows of seats where the students were to be seated, and at the side walls of the hall were rows of chairs, each diagonally positioned for the teachers to have a good view of the stage. The stage was up at the front of the hall, a three feet high platform on which teachers spoke and made announcements and students did plays. The two boys peered through the metal wires, and being high up at the side of the wall close to the front of the hall, they could see almost everything.

Inside the hall was Tayuya tapping her foot impatiently, and Kidoumaru, who was sitting on the stage with his legs dangling off it, a pair of arms with palms down behind him for balance, and the other two pairs folded across his chest. Sasuke noticed a few chocolate bars and wrapped pieces of candy next to him.

Their form teacher, Sakon/Ukon, walked in. Sakon had on a strangely scary smile on his face, and although Sasuke couldn't see Ukon, he could imagine the same smile he probably had.

-

Naruto suddenly realized that Sakon/Ukon wasn't as hunched as he thought they were. Maybe it was just that time he was late that they were huffed up, but now they were walking toward the stage with quite a straight posture. When Sakon/Ukon were at the front of the stage and had turned so that both faces were visible, Naruto realized, with closer observation, that the two brothers had a slight effeminate look about them, although there was also an inexplicable ugliness about it.

Then came in the fat sub. He walked to the front of the stage, and Naruto held his breath in anticipation. But all that happened was Kidoumaru greeting him with, "Hey Jiroubou."

Naruto looked in confusion. 'Aren't the mice leaders gonna do something to the rat-eliminator?_'_

-

Sasuke's mind was working on a different level, 'They're not doing anything to him. I had a feeling that fat sub was in on it too. If it's not him, then it must be…'

-

Naruto thought hard, 'Fat slob… what other fat slob is there in the school?_'_ Then his eyes widened in stunned realization, as someone stepped through the hall entrance.

'Chouji!'

---

A/N: Ok, review please - just to let me know how I'm going.

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	3. Go for the Greedy

A/N: Ahh!! Reviews at last!! No errors occurred with the posting of the chapter!! Yayz! Thanks for the reviews, my dear… kofftwokoff… reviewers!! Makes me really happy!! {tears pour out from eyes}

Frontier of Darkness!! May I call you FOD? Thanks so much for that uplifting review of yours!! On ur 'fav stories' list? I'm honored. And I left a review of gratitude back at your own fic - Quest of the Green Beast. I think I fell in love with it at first read… {sighs dreamily}

Ok people, enjoy!

**Chapter 3: Go for the Greedy**

Naruto was about to scream at Chouji to get out, but Sasuke's hand clamped over his mouth and pulled him away from the wire mesh. Naruto's hand was squeezing Sasuke's wrist tight enough to stop the blood flow, but he wasn't fighting it off. In fact, he forcefully pressed the hand against his lips to stop any noise from coming out if his teeth decided to let go of his tongue.

At the front of the stage, Chouji was smiling as he walked toward the subs, a little warily, but the sight of Kidoumaru waving a chocolate bar made his face light up.

"Hi there, Chouji, was it?"

"Yes sensei!" Chouji eyed the chocolate bar hungrily.

"Remember how I told you that you were doing very well in your classes?" Kidoumaru asked.

"Yes, I remember, sensei."

Naruto kept biting his tongue. He knew Chouji wasn't exactly the brightest pupil in class. It was obvious the sub was lying.

"Here's your reward." Kidoumaru threw the chocolate bar at Chouji.

Naruto was desperate to yell at Chouji to get out of the room, but he noticed that Sakon/Ukon had locked the hall entrance doors. If he made any noise, the subs may just come for him and Sasuke, so it was pointless to do anything.

-

Sasuke was dying to push Naruto off himself. When he had pulled the blonde boy back from the mesh toward himself, Naruto's left elbow was resting heavily on Sasuke's left thigh, and the pain of Naruto's sharp elbow digging into his leg was excruciating. But he didn't want to let go of Naruto's mouth in case the boy carelessly made any noise. He looked over Naruto's head to observe just what was going to happen.

Chouji was cramming the chocolate bar into his mouth without a second thought. Nothing happened to Chouji at first, and he smiled and said, "Thank you sensei!" before starting to make his way out.

Sasuke waited for something to happen.

Chouji was halfway to the entrance doors when he suddenly stopped.

Sasuke felt Naruto jerk to prevent himself from breathing in sharply.

Chouji stumbled and murmured, "Sensei… I don't feel too well…" and he fell onto one knee before leaning forward with his hands on the ground.

Sasuke thought the boy was going to spew, but Chouji started shaking very violently. It all took about half a minute, and Sasuke could see everything that happened. Chouji started shaking even harder, before he started shrinking. Sasuke's eyes widened as he watched the spectacle. Chouji's form became smaller and smaller, and his entire body started to distort itself. He could see Chouji's arms starting to move toward the front, and his knees divided into two joints. His head was changing its shape, and hair was growing everywhere. A tail shot out from his rear end, and his clothes hung looser and looser. Soon, there was nothing to be seen of him but a pile of clothes.

Sakon/Ukon walked toward the pile of clothes and stepped onto any small lumps that they could see. Then a small squeak was heard and a small hairy brown ball rolled out from the pile of clothes. Sasuke's sensitive eyes allowed him to see it was a mouse. A round, fat mouse that carried itself with four small feet. The mouse ran to the nearest hole it could find, which was a mouse hole at the side of a wall, and jumped into it.

"Kill it!" Tayuya yelled. Sakon/Ukon made a dash for it, and Sasuke saw that the mouse which was Chouji was too fat to get into the hole, and was stuck there. Sakon/Ukon ran toward him and pulled out a kunai to end the mouse's life. Before the dagger could touch him, Chouji had sucked in his gut and plopped through the hole and into the other side of the wall, and the kunai was left there, sticking out at the entrance of the mouse hole.

"Damn." Ukon said.

"Ah, who cares." Kidoumaru said. "The fat rat will stay that way for the while and will die eventually. Haha… get it? Fat rat? Ha! Damn, I crack myself up…"

Sakon rolled his eyes and said, "At first I thought this plan of the boss's was just plain stupid, but now, I think it may just be the best. No one will guess where the kids are and what happened to them."

"And all kids _do_ like candy, don't they?" Ukon added in an evil sort of voice.

"The chocolate bar we just used had a drop of the first batch of potion supply." Tayuya said, "Boss said we'll have to try out the second batch. Kidoumaru, find some other kid greedy enough to believe whatever we say."

"Always me… why don't you do something for once?"

Tayuya shot a glare at him.

"Alright, alright!" Kidoumaru decided it was best not to anger the woman. "I'll be looking around during lunchtime tomorrow."

-

Naruto watched the teachers collect Chouji's clothes and leave the hall, locking the entrance doors after themselves, and Sasuke finally took his hand off Naruto's mouth and hastily pushed him off.

"Shit… what was that…" Naruto stammered.

He looked at Sasuke, who was rubbing a bruise on his thigh. "Oh… sorry…" And then he saw blood covering Sasuke's palm. "You're bleeding? Hey, no way my elbow could pierce your skin…"

"It's not my blood, you idiot." Sasuke tried moving his limp leg, "It's yours."

Naruto wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and saw it  was covered with a mixture of his own blood and saliva. He had bitten his tongue so hard it had started bleeding. "Oh."

Sasuke turned around and started crawling back, the blood in his leg beginning to circulate. Naruto hurriedly crawled behind him, still shaken by the incident. "I… what… what on earth was that? Where's Chouji?"

"Don't know." Was all Naruto got from his teammate. They reached the end of the airway they had first entered at the start, and climbed out.

Naruto took a huge gulp of fresh air and allowed himself to pant as heavily as he wanted.

"Shouldn't we stay and look for Chouji?" Naruto asked, a hint of shock still evident in his voice.

"No. They locked the hall doors. We can't get in." Sasuke said, breathing heavily himself.

"Chou… Chouji's a… mouse…" Naruto said, as if trying to convince himself.

"Look, Naruto. Don't say anything about this to anyone. First of all, they wouldn't believe us, and secondly, the subs may find out we know a lot of things we're not meant to."

Naruto slowly nodded.

The two boys ran out the school from the back way so that they would avoid any unwanted confrontations from any sub, and as they walked back, they planned what they were going to do the next day.

---

"Oh YES!!!" Naruto yelled in excitement, "FOOD TIME!!!"

He sat down at the cafeteria with the other students and started stuffing himself with his lunch. "MAN, I LOVE FOOD. I CAN EAT EVERYTHING!!" He exclaimed loudly.

"We know, Naruto." Sakura said, her annoyance obvious.

"You don't have to be so loud about it." Shikamaru said in his usual bored voice.

Naruto kept digging greedily into his food.

"Anyone know where Chouji is?" Ino asked.

Naruto paused for a split second, but quickly continued eating.

"Maybe he decided he was too hungry for school and went to some all-you-can-eat buffet." Shika mused.

"Second helping!!!" Naruto called out and dug in.

Ino shook her head, "Just how much can you eat?"

-

Without moving his head, Sasuke looked at the entrance of the cafeteria from the corner of his eye and could see a certain six-armed man watching their table. The plan was working.

"Numbah THREE!!!" Naruto called out again.

Naruto was doing quite well, and Sasuke saw the sub smile and walk away.

Sasuke gave a slight nod to Naruto, who grinned and finished off the rest of his lunch.

Now all they had to do was wait for the sub to make a move.

---

It was the end of lunch and everyone was going back to class. The next teacher was Kidoumaru. 'Perfect.' Thought Naruto.

As they entered the class, the teacher was leaning against the wall outside the class, waiting for all the students to get in. "Ah, you!" He called to Naruto.

Naruto looked behind him and pointed to himself, earning a nod from the sub. Naruto looked into the classroom, where Sasuke already inside and had turned around and given a reassuring nod.

Naruto walked up to the teacher and smiled his foxy smile, "Yes sensei?"

"Your name, boy?"

"Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto!"

"And you love eating, right?"

"Hai, sensei!"

"Then you love chocolate and candy?"

"Of course sensei! Don't all kids?"

"GOOD! - I mean, that's… nice. Yes, it's great you kids love candy. Well, I have free candy with me. You want some?"

"Yes sensei!" Naruto put on a very greedy look in his eyes.

"Ok, you'll have to meet me after this class, in the cafeteria, ok?"

Naruto appeared overjoyed, "Thank you sensei!!" 'After this class? Why not after school?' He thought.

They entered the class and Naruto went to his seat.

Naruto smiled inwardly. He thought the plan he and Sasuke… ok, so maybe just Sasuke… came up with the day before was fantastic. He was a little apprehensive about being the bait and all, but with Sasuke saying that he'll back him up, he felt a little better. Along with the bonus of him getting to stuff himself with three helpings of food during lunch, how could he back down? All he had to do later when he receives the chocolate bar is ask the teacher to try it first, just to see their reaction. Sasuke will be somewhere armed with a camcorder.

But now he was a little confused about why he was invited to take it after class and not after school. There were two classes after lunch before school ended, and the one he was in now was the first of the two. The answer came to him before he could make one up himself.

"Class," Kidoumaru announced, "Today after school there will be a candy fair. Not really a fair, but free candy for all."

The class launched into a series of noisy and excited bickers.

Naruto's eyes widened in horrified realization. The subs were going to poison the whole school! So even if he and Sasuke did do something about the situation, it'll be too late to get any evidence at all to the Hokage. He looked at Sasuke, who was looking down at his desk in a very serious manner, as if thinking about what to do next.

The class was noisy now, and the teacher didn't seem to care. Kidoumaru just sat down and was reading some book. Some students had gotten up from their seats and went over to other students to chat, so Naruto hopped over to Sasuke.

"I'm meeting him after this class."

Sasuke didn't move his head.

"What are we gonna do now?" Naruto asked anxiously.

"Just go on with the plan."

Naruto couldn't think of any alternative. It was best to do just that.

-

Sakura looked at Naruto and Sasuke. She could guess that something was obviously going on. But she knew that she'd probably be shunned off if she did ask about it. The boys didn't seem to want to talk about it anyway.

Her mind floated on to thoughts about the candy fair later on that day. She loved sweets, and she was desperately hoping most of the other students were going too. Well, at least a certain raven-haired student that is in her team. But did Sasuke even like candy? He didn't seem like the type. He looked more like a… protein person… Someone that was set on building up on muscles in anyway possible. Most of the other guys seemed like protein people too. Like Neji and Rock Lee and… a whole lot of others. So far, Naruto and Chouji were the few that liked everything.

"Poor Chouji." Sakura heard Ino's voice, "He's gonna miss out on all the candy." Somehow, Ino didn't sound too sad for the said boy.

"Is everyone going?" The teacher suddenly called out.

A large majority of the class responded positively in enthusiasm.

-

"Everyone's going…"The sub said to himself and smiled, then sat down and continued reading his manual on "Mousetraps and How to Set Them Up".

---

A/N: Man.. I feel like I'm dragging this chapter… I'm itching to start on the next chapter but I really gtg start on my holiday homework… {big sigh}

Ah, anyone at all know how to put the asterisks?? Anyone?

And don't forget to review.. not craving comments or trying to be a pain, but always good to know just how many people have come across ur fic..

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	4. Three Down and the Rest of the School to...

A/N: OK, next chapter's here.

**Neko****?**** Then Neko it is…**: Save Neji, Shika, Hinata and TenTen?? Oh, but making them mice is what gets the story exciting!! Buahaha!! Afterall, it'll be cool to see a mouse use Byakugan… Herherz…

* * *

**Chapter 4: Three Down… and the Rest of the School to Go**

Naruto suppressed a shudder as he turned into the cafeteria. He had been excited at the start but now he was just plain scared. Sasuke had left a lot earlier to set up some hiding spot with the camcorder and now Naruto had to face the six-armed sub by himself.

"Calm down… breathe in, breathe out…" He told himself. He turned and stepped into the cafeteria.

Kidoumaru looked up and smiled a very fake-looking sweet smile. "Ahh… Naruto! I knew you'd come."

"You did?" Naruto asked, trying not to let his fear overtake him.

"Yes. I knew you'd come too." Sakon's voice sounded from behind him, causing Naruto's heart to jump. He spun around, "Oh! Sakon and Ukon sensei's!! Haha… how come you're here?"

"To watch a pupil on our own class receive a reward. We're here to support you." Ukon said in a creepy voice.

"Why, you really don't have too…" Naruto tried to appear as unafraid as possible, "What nice teachers you are. But I'm sure you have a lot of papers to mark and people to scold, so… err, why are you locking the door?" His last sentence came out high pitched and squeaky, making Naruto feel like he was already a mouse.

"Why, so that other students won't see you and get jealous. Wouldn't want a crowd of candy-loving students pouring in now, do we?" Sakon said, latching the door.

'What kind of a lame excuse is that?!' Naruto thought, appalled by the lack of credibility in the reasoning. He was just about to angrily voice that very opinion when Kidoumaru called and threw a chocolate bar straight at his face, and Naruto caught it just before it hit the floor.

"Oh! Thanks sensei! I'll be off now. Toodles!!" Naruto gave a wave and proceeded to walk toward the cafeteria exit. Sakon/Ukon stood their ground in front of the door, and Kidoumaru seemed to be getting impatient, "Aren't you going to eat it here?"

"Oh, no…" Naruto replied shakily, "I'm going to enjoy this in my mouse- I mean, house! And I'm gonna be bait- LATE… at this rat- I mean… RATE!!"

Kidoumaru narrowed his eyes, but forced a smile, "Oh, just finish it here, and you can be on your way home…"

"NO!! I mean… no! Haha… I really must get going…"

"JUST EAT THE DAMN THING!!"

"Ok!" Naruto tore the wrapper off and shoved the chocolate bar into his mouth.

"Ahaha… very, {chomp} very yummy!!" Naruto said with a full mouth, "I'll be {chomp} going now…"

Sakon/Ukon just stayed at the door. Naruto was about to put up a fight when six hands pushed him from behind, causing him to swallow the entire mouthful of partially masticated chocolate in one gulp.

'SHIT!!' Naruto cursed in his head, with one single word reverberating in his mind: MOUSE.

He felt himself becoming shorter, and he could feel his bones moving around like he was some lego doll getting remodeled. He could feel the whiskers on his face grow longer and more prominent, and his skull felt… weird.

Soon he was looking straight at someone's shoes, dizzy from the chemical brew.

Kidoumaru laughed evilly, "So you knew about the potion… well, no mouse is going to spill this plan to anyone."

The sub lifted a foot and it was about to come down upon a very shocked and lightheaded rodent when a voice came out from behind the cafeteria counter.

"Who said a mouse was gonna spill it?"

Kidoumaru spun around in bewilderment, "WHAT? Who are YOU?"

"Uchiha…" Sakon murmured from the cafeteria doors.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Kidoumaru raised a brow, "I've heard of you. The Sharingan."

-

Sasuke, standing on the countertop, smirked nonchalantly and his eyes turned ruby red, "You got that right."

He leapt in the air with amazing speed, bringing a foot down on Kidoumaru's head.

Kidourmaru used the force of the kick to do a back flip, and landed back, on his feet, and he grinned horribly, "This will be fun."

Two ridiculously long arms shot out from the sub's sides, extending like rubber, and headed straight for Sasuke, followed by another two more.

For the next few seconds, all Sasuke saw were hands and fingers. The snake-like arms were quick and darted around easily at him, and he had to duck and dodge quicker than the mobile limbs.

Kidourmaru saw that the boy was coping exceedingly well and shot out the other two remaining arms to attack.

Sasuke fought with them for a few more seconds before he finally found a clear shot, and he took his strike, sharply hitting the side of his hand against Kidourmaru's arm - sort of like a karate chop.

A loud crack was heard, and Kidourmaru howled in pain, "Damn you…" He cursed, drawing his arm back like a spider that just got poked at.

Sasuke was about to charge at him again when Sakon's face appeared from under, and the sub's hands were going straight for Sasuke's head.

Sasuke was already in the forward momentum he had launched himself in, so stopping without crashing into the sub was out of the question. The only way Sasuke could dodge the hit was by jumping above the sub's hand range and hitching himself onto Sakon's shoulders with his two hands, then flipping himself over the sub, and continue in the direction he was first in. And that was exactly what he did. This move was already too dangerously close to the opponent, so he did it as fast as he possibly could and tried to create more space between the sub and himself.

When he felt he was a comfortable number of meters away from the sub, he turned around, expecting to see the Sakon right on his heels. But the sub was standing just where Sasuke had left him. Kidoumaru wasn't making any moves either. Something must be wrong.

Sasuke then saw the quiet smile of Ukon, hanging from Sakon's back. Sasuke felt quick pang of panic and reached behind himself, pulling off the that had been planted on his back by Ukon while he had flipped over Sakon. But it was too late. The explosion took place and Sasuke felt his body getting flung back by its ardent force.

Blank. That was all he saw and thought. He couldn't see, feel, of hear anything, and he couldn't react to anything as his body wouldn't respond - there were no instructions from the mind for the body to respond to. When the white blank finally started to clear from his eyes, he saw two teachers looking down at him… smiling evilly…

Then the pain came. A crushing sort of pain, as if every bone in the body was getting twisted into bizarre positions they weren't meant to be in. It all happened so fast, yet so slowly to him. He could hear the cracking and grinding of bones as organs shifted around his being. And the pain was like fire, like his muscles were getting ripped off and his skin was getting stretched and torn apart. He couldn't breathe, like he had no lungs to do so.

But the pain eventually stopped. And all he could do was lie there. His mind was fast, and it soon snapped out of the shock from the pain and was registering everything he heard.

"Whoa. How fast did that happen? One drop takes about thirty seconds. This one took about four secs."

"That was eight drops of the potion at one go… It must have hurt a lot. I think it killed him."

"…No way… it's still alive? Kill it."

If Sasuke's mind was fast enough to register what he heard, it was fast enough to register what he saw: A large foot, coming right down towards… no, onto him…

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!!!" A small, chipmunk-like squeal could, ever so faintly, be heard.

"ARGH!!!" The foot drew back away from him. Relief washed over him, but still he could not move.

"Dammit!! Where the hell did all these rats come from?"

"OW!! The damn things are biting me!"

"They're back for revenge!!!"

"Kidoumaru, shuddup and kill the damn things."

Sasuke could feel his body getting dragged from where he was lying, and he was soon inside a dark, musty looking place that looked like the underneath of a cupboard.

Wait. It _was_ the underneath of a cupboard.

"Hi Sasuke." It was all too familiar a voice.

"Naruto?" He could barely move his lips as he spoke. Were they even lips?

"Whoa, you took that potion pretty fast. Shot down in three seconds. You okay?"

"Did it hurt?" Chouji's voice. Naruto must have met Chouji here. Just like Chouji to make for the cafeteria when turned into a mouse.

"Yea…" Sasuke chose not to let on that it was still hurting like hell. He finally felt sensations coming back to his limbs, and then he ignored whatever pain he felt and got up… on all fours.  
He stood there unsteadily for a while. It was a strange feeling to get up on all fours, and walking was definitely going to be weirder, although it probably wouldn't take too long to get used to.

He looked up at the two other creatures nearby. One was a brown, large and round one, no doubt Chouji, with the two usual pink spirals on his cheeks. The other mouse was a light, blondish color, with bright blue orbs for eyes - obviously Naruto. Sasuke noticed Naruto's tail, instead of a thin, mousey one, was a longer, more fox-like sort of tail, and his whiskers were extra long.

-

Naruto felt a little tired after using his shadow replication technique, and the six-armed sub tasted pretty nasty too. Being a mouse, he felt that his chakra level had decreased along with his body size, and he also realized that the only technique he could used was whichever he was best at - that is, shadow replication.

It was freaky how he saw Sasuke disappear in a few seconds and ending a up a mouse. Having taken a chocolate bar with one drop of the potion, it had already hurt its fair share. Eight times must have really did some damage. But Sasuke was standing on his fours now, a dark, ebony colored mouse with red eyes, a black tail, and white paws. Now that he saw Sasuke seemed fine, he could finally laugh.

"WHAHAHAHA!!!" Naruto burst out.

"What?" Sasuke asked with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"You're a mouse!!! Sasuke is a mouse… Sasuke is a mouse…" Naruto sung.

"You're one to talk, you gerbil."

Naruto zipped up immediately and glared. "I'm a foxy mouse. NOT a gerbil."

"Quit fooling around. We gotta go find some way to tell the others."

"Chouji, we gotta go…" Naruto couldn't continue, as what he saw nearly sent him spewing.

Chouji was nibbling at a lump of some old moldy scrap of food that looked like it had been there for a few years. In fact, he was sure he could see things moving around on it. Sasuke couldn't help but cringe at the sight too.

Chouji looked up, "What? I'm starving, okay?"

---

Among many other students, Sakura could see that all the other teams were there. Hinata, Shino and Kiba were looking at a certain stall selling chocolate bars, and Kiba was letting Akamaru choose whatever bar it wanted.

Rock Lee, TenTen and Neji were at another stall selling lollipops, with only Neji not looking to interested, in fact, rather annoyed he was pulled along.

"Wonder where Sasuke-kun is." Ino wondered aloud.

Sakura was musing over the exact same thing. Exactly where were her two teammates? The candy fair was just starting.

"Sasuke probably doesn't care and isn't coming, and Naruto's most likely gathering every single coin he can possibly find at home for the fair." Shikamaru droned in his usual bored voice.

"I just can't believe Chouji isn't here. He must really be sick." Ino said.

Sakura thought about what Shika said about her teammates. 'He's probably right.' she sighed as she followed the other team into the fair, ready to indulge in whatever candies were in store for them.

---

A/N: Righteo… many mice to come…

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	5. Too Late

A/N: Yehooz!! Damn assignments and tests are outta the way!! I can finally get this chapter done with.

Ok, I realize this fic is doing really sadly… but oh well, I'm just gonna keep doing it. Only cuz I'm a very bored person with nothing much else to do. :S What, does my summary sound really cheap or something?? {sobz…}

Well, to my two loyal reviewers!! BIG "HI" to R.K.R and Neko!! Man.. I'm sounding as sad as my fic…

* * *

**Chapter 5: Too Late**

"You know… {pant}… this is taking… {pant}… a lot longer than I thought… {pant}…" Naruto stopped running to catch his breath. Being able to cover only a centimeter each step does slow one down a lot.

Sasuke himself was puffing rather heavily for a mouse, "We're just a few more…" He looked at the school back entrance, "Ok, a hell of a lot more corridors away from the back door. But we still gotta keep moving."

Naruto whimpered loudly. "Man, I wish I were Chouji. At least he could roll." Chouji had used his family technique and turned into a mouse-ball, and had shot all the way down the passageway like a tennis ball. He was currently waiting at the other end, trying to regain whatever chakra he had lost while using the technique.

The two mice had made it pretty far in less than a minute. It was just the countless steps they had to take to get there that tired them out. Mice were naturally quick on their feet, but Sasuke and Naruto had to learn how to run before they could crawl.

They were pretty much expert runners after the next twenty-five meters down the corridor, and Chouji was just about to fall asleep.

"Hey!" Naruto tried to smack the back of Chouji's head, but realized he couldn't really do it since he needed both his front paws on the ground.

"I'm up, I'm up…" Chouji yawned and scratched his neck with his back foot. 'Man, he got used to being a mouse pretty fast…' Naruto mused to himself.

Naruto shrugged, and then yelled with a great deal of enthusiasm, "Well, let's go and warn the others!!" He turned and before he could walk through the entrance, he ran smack into the now very heavy and massive door.

"GAAAHHH… PAIN!!!" Naruto squeaked, clutching on to his nose with his two tiny paws. Very cute. Chouji burst out laughing. Sasuke shook his head and murmured something along the lines of "Idiot…"

Them being an inch and a half high and the door being three meters, there was no way they could push it. But the crack under the door seemed like a possible means of getting through. And this was exactly what Sasuke thought. He squeezed his now even more flexible body under the door and the last Naruto saw of him was his tail. Naruto followed suit, and then Chouji. But let's use the analogy of squeezing a pear into the coin notch of a piggybank. No, not possible. And Chouji just wouldn't fit.

"Suck in, you birdbrain." Sasuke pulled one of Chouji's paws as hard as his own paws allowed him.

"You know, if you weren't so fa-" Naruto stopped himself before Chouji's eyes glazed over with animated fire, "…fantastically built, maybe you could have made it through." Chouji seemed to have taken the bait, and was back to trying to suck in his gut.

Naruto turned to look at the scene at the back of the school.

Everyone was there, at least everyone he knew. And there were more, students which he didn't know and hadn't met yet, some of which he had seen around the school. And soon, all of them were going to be mice.

Naruto spotted a familiar head of pink somewhere among the crowd of students, making its way to a stall. "Sakura-chan!!" Naruto exclaimed, earning Sasuke's attention.

"Where?" The black mouse asked, scanning the crowd and spotting her in no time, "We gotta get to her and warn her first. Or better yet, tell the nearest person we know on our way to her. The faster we warn everyone, the better."

Naruto nodded and off they went, leaving poor Chouji stuck in the door crack still trying to suck his tummy in.

It was actually quite scary, trying to make their way through the mass of feet in constant motion. It was almost like walking through a maze with moving walls that could come crashing down upon you anytime. The two mice darted around, avoiding getting squashed, and sometimes even hopping on someone's foot for a lift. And they soon reached their pink-haired teammate.

- 

Sakura hated herself. She was doing so well on her carbo-diet and now she had just ruined it by cramming down four bars of chocolate. If that didn't make her feel sick, it sure made her feel fat. Come to think of it, she really was feeling queasy. She was desperate to sit down somewhere and a nearby bench looked rather appealing at that moment. "Ino, I'm gonna take a seat. You guys go on ahead." Ino and Shika nodded and walked off, while Sakura went toward the bench and was about to sit down when she felt something brush across her toes. She looked down, and screamed.

"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Thankfully for her dignity, her scream didn't get very far as the crowd was already as noisy as it was. But that didn't stop her from screaming some more. "RAT!! GET OFF MEEE!!!" She jumped onto the bench and kept screaming. Then she felt a wave of nausea come over her. She used the backing of the bench for her support, and she could feel something brewing within her. She closed her eyes and could feel her body… reshaping? Impossible as it seemed, but that was exactly what it felt like.

And that was exactly what it was.

It was quite painful, but she opened her eyes again, and the landscape she saw now was very different to the scene she had last seen before closing her eyes. And she was now staring at two giant mice.

She screamed even louder, "THEY'RE GROWING!!! MUTANT MICE!!"

"Sakura-chan." The light colored mouse spoke up.

Wait. Did the mouse just call her name? And its voice sounded a lot like…

"It's me, Naruto!"

Yes, it was Naruto.

"Naruto??? Why are you a mouse??"

"Sakura-chan. You're a mouse too."

"Eh?" Sakura looked down at her hands… no, paws.

"No… It can't be… I'm… I'm a…"

Naruto plugged his ears in the nick of time.

"RRAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!"

"Mouse, to be exact." Sasuke remarked impassively.

"IMPOSSI- Sasuke-kun??" Sakura stared at the black rat with white paws standing not far behind Naruto. "Sasuke-kun, you're a rat- I mean, mouse too?"

Sasuke chose not to answer the question. The answer was quite obvious after all. He turned away too observe the rest of the school body in the candy fair.

Sakura swooned. Even though Sasuke was a mouse, he still looked so handsome and cool…

"Sakura-chan." The voice snapped her out from her daydream.

"Eh, Naruto?"

"We have to warn the others about the substitutes." Naruto proceeded to tell her everything he and Sasuke had went through.

A series of screams were suddenly heard. Sakura and Naruto whipped their heads around to see a commotion going on amongst the crowd of students. Soon, heads were disappearing, and more screams were heard.

"Too late." Sasuke muttered.

The students were turning into mice. It has begun, and they were too late. Sakura stared as she saw more smoke and less people. Squeaks replaced screams and pretty soon, everyone was turned into mice.

Rodents scattered around as far as her eyes could see - which wasn't very far, considering how close she was to the ground. She saw Naruto start running toward the mass of mice, "C'mon you guys. We gotta find the other teams!"

It was absolute pandemonium as the three mice made their way through the crowd of mice of various shapes, sizes, and colors.

- 

Neji had been one of the last people to turn into a mouse, being as he had only taken a single piece of candy. He hated candy. And he hated candy fairs even more. It was bad enough that he was dragged to a candy fair by his two annoyingly sweet-tooth teammates, but now he was a mouse. This was all their faults. Damn them and their constant whining about his inflexibility. After all, this was about tastes, not skills. And the whole transformation had hurt quite a bit too. Oh, just wait till he got his hands… ah, paws on them…

It was rather strange he wasn't overreacting to the entire situation. He should actually be thinking about what on earth was going on, who was in charge of this whole thing, why everyone have turned into mice, why he was a mouse, and whether or not they could all change back into humans again. Yes, it was strange he was calm about the whole thing. But he wasn't ever one to panic. Others said that if you panicked, you couldn't think straight. Sure, he agreed, but whether or not that was the case, he just didn't like panicking.

Well, everyone else sure didn't share the same views as himself. All the people-turned-mice were definitely panicking, very badly - evident by the way they were running around in no particular direction. He could see horror etched over their mousey faces, if it were even possible for mice to express emotions through their faces. Actually, the whole thing would have been quite funny if he himself wasn't a mouse.

He should start thinking about the previously mentioned questions he was meant to be asking himself. Ok, fine. What on earth was going on? Dunno. Who was in charge of the whole thing? Dunno. Why have everyone turned into mice? Dunno that either. Why was he a mouse? He was sure it had something to do with that stupid candy… Maybe his body had some allergic reaction to candy… Hey, that was great news. Now he had an excuse to not get pulled into candy-fests with his teammates anymore. But wait, everyone turned into mice too, so does that mean everyone else has an allergic reaction to candy too? Ok, he should stop playing around and get serious. What was the last question… Could they change back into humans again? Now that was an important question in need of pondering. He didn't want to be stuck as a mouse forever. Who ever heard of a ninja mouse? He wanted to be a human ninja. He wanted to learn more techniques… Speaking of techniques, could he still perform any of his own? Ok, perhaps he should try something basic… like jutsu. Didn't work. Ok, maybe the jutsu. Didn't work either. Damn paws can't make seals properly. Ok, one last try. Perhaps his bloodline limited would do. After all, it _was_ in his blood. If that didn't work, he didn't know what would. He couldn't make the seal, so perhaps concentrating may work…

"Byakugan!"

He felt the familiar veins around his eyes dilate with a mixture of chakra and blood, and his vision took off, shooting through the mass of still scuttling mice as far as he wanted it too.

Catching sight of something slightly out of the ordinary, his sight zoomed past and then back up upon a rodent dashing through the crowd. The mouse was of a blondish color, with long whiskers and a very long fox-like tail, and the creature resembled something more of a… gerbil?

- 

"Shikamaru?" Naruto peered through his squinted eyes at the other boy.

"Naruto? How'd you know it was me?" Shika, sitting at the side of a candy stall, asked, his voice in the usual lazy drone.

Naruto proudly replied, "One, you look like you. Two, you're standing in the middle of the terror-stricken crowd like it was too troublesome to run. And three, your dull and monotonous voice just confirmed it. Now, how do you know it was _me_?"

"One, you just look like you. Two, you're running around with two mice who look like Sasuke and Sakura, and three, _your_ loud and annoying voice just confirmed it."

Naruto glared.

"Anyway, just what the hell is going on around here?" Shika asked.

"We all turned into mice." Naruto remarked.

"Really? Now, why didn't I realize that?" Shika snapped sarcastically.

Naruto glared again.

"Where's your team?" Sasuke asked Shika.

"Ah, no idea. Must've got lost when the crowd went berserk."

Naruto saw that Sasuke was looking at him, or more like behind him, and he himself spun around to find out what Sasuke was looking at.

"Hyuuga Neji?" Naruto said aloud.

"What?"

"Oh, no, I wasn't asking you a question. I was just… exclaiming… your name…"

Neji was as black as Sasuke, but without the white paws. Instead, his eyes shone the same vacant white which all of the Hyuuga blood had.

"What the hell is going on?" Neji asked, then looked at Naruto, "I'd imagine you're probably behind all this."

"WHAT?" Naruto spat, "I had nothing to do with this!!"

"I'll explain what we know so far later. Now, we find everyone else first." Sasuke finally spoke up.

"Granted." Neji said, and Naruto thought the white-eyed mouse was planning ahead on something. (Which was what he was going to do to his two nags for teammates.)

"Usually, we'd spread out to cover more ground. But this time, I have a feeling it'd be safer to stick together." Shika said, his unseemingly great mind working away.

"Where do we start?" Naruto asked.

"HELLO!!" A spark of white teeth, a twitch of thick eyebrow, a shift of bowl-haircut.

Naruto and the others cringed.

--- 

A/N: So, my two readers, how was that?? :D:D:D

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